What is an absolute NO NO when going for a job interview?

PickleButterJelly · 3日前

Ask what job you're interviewing for

nocaptain11 · 3日前

True story: I was sitting outside of an interview room with several candidates for the same job, all of us waiting our turn. The guy beside me pulled out a noisy plastic packet of peanut butter crackers and started to have a snack. Shortly after that his name was called for his interview. He stood up, and without missing a beat continued to munch on the crackers as he walked into the interview room.

TedderFace · 3日前

Never say anything negative about yourself unless you can say how you are going to fix it

Drwelfare10X8 · 3日前

"I need this job I can't get on a lot of places because I can't pass a drug test"

I have heard this line.

Back2Bach · 3日前

Chewing gum - especially bubble gum - during the job interview.

I once had an applicant sit there chewing bubble gum. At first I thought it might be a "nervous habit," but when he blew a bubble while I was referring to his resume, that did it.

Summerie · 3日前

Don't ask if they drug test.

Ashlee_Phoenix · 3日前

Do not bring your children to a job interview.

Abstrusity · 3日前

Your interviewer does not know your secret handshake.

He or she will not be impressed at a fist bump.

Madrascalcutta · 3日前

Showing up late.Leave ahead of time and reach ahead of time to score some brownie points.

BigMucker · 3日前

Talking over the interviewers while they're asking you a question or answering one of yours.

Edit: Thank you for the Gold, /u/Zerklueftung :)

ThatYourFinger · 3日前

Ever giving the impression that you are only there temporarily, that includes talking about your goal to move out of state or out of the area in a year. There is a difference between indefinite and definite, however. Saying you plan to go return to school is fine, it shows ambition. Saying you plan to go back to school in 6 months and have already signed a lease in another area is not.

Most of the time, it isn't what you say it's how you present it. If you're applying for a sales position and you don't have any hard sales experience, manipulate what you do have experience in and present it as related to sales. "At the ice cream shop I worked at in college, the owner always stressed to try to upsell additional toppings. I would often just tell my customers 'you should put some strawberry syrup on that' and as a consequence my register at the end of my shift would always ring higher than the other employees."

Brrringsaythealiens · 3日前

In general, making it all about you, instead of focusing on how you will be a good solution for the person interviewing you.

This includes asking about salary and time off too early (wait for the offer), saying you want the job because of various personal needs (need the money, hours are good for me taking care of kids), answering "tell me about yourself" with a bunch of family and hobby stuff (this question is realiy about your skills and career trajectory, not your personal life).

In an interview, the interviewer is thinking, "can this person solve the problems that led to me hiring for this position." Try to answer those questions instead of asking, "how will this job help me."

vodkagrey · 3日前

Not wearing the appropriate clothing.

Lastrange1 · 3日前

When they ask you where you see yourself in 5 years time do not, I repeat DO NOT... shove the boss out of the chair , sit on it and say 'Here'

toastshop · 2日前

If you apply for a job that has a high turnover rate and requires no skills, and you get to the interview stage, then you will pretty much definitely get it, regardless of if you turn up in a tracksuit and swear during the interview.

You don't want those jobs.

Hewkho · 3日前

Taking care of your personal hygiene. Take a shower, the floss and then masturbate for less pressure. You shouldn't do it during the job interview.

niponolk · 3日前

badmouthing your previous employer, bringing your anal beads.

edit: oh wow, this thing blew up and lots of questions below about how to deal with it if your previous/current company actually was terrible, breaking some laws, tyrannical boss, big misunderstandings and whatnot. i'd say it's all about your tone and presentation. there will undoubtedly be times when you're asked about your previous employer and you don't want to lie, but sometimes keeping it vague is best rather than doling out specifics (unless they want to delve deeper).

so in one case where the previous company committed fraud, you may decide to mention you witnessed the company taking part in some potentially unethical things and they made you uncomfortable (again, vague is best here) - that kind of answer is a world away from "well, the boss was an ass, the company was stealing, all of the employees were lazy, they all treated me like crap, there was gossip, the dress code was unfair", etc. you'd be surprised at, especially with younger people, how many will come in with petty office chat like that. you don't need to make the prior company out to be perfect and saintly, but you don't want to come off as if you're potentially toxic/gossipy. in a less extreme case, something like an easy let-down breakup - it just wasn't a fit and i felt like we should go our separate ways, i'm looking to grow and advance etc. use your best judgement, just try not to badmouth everyone and everything unless it's something totally egregious and even then - practice tact.

this is just my limited experience where i was in charge of interviewing/hiring, my direct manager and i would very often pass on people who seemed to carry toxicity with them. if they had a legitimate grievance and were tactful and honest about it though, that's something else entirely.

theAlpacaLives · 3日前

I know you want to impress them. Yes, they're probably going to ask what your greatest strength is. But you still shouldn't wear a shirt with no sleeves.

Bennely · 2日前

Being a jerk to the receptionist. You'd be amazed at how much influence they can have.

dainty_flower · 3日前

Telling your prospective employer "I don't like working for women," when she's female. Then later saying "I don't get along with men either."

Jetkill_Fastmurder · 3日前

'What's your weakness?'

"I have a short temper."

'Care to elaborate?'

"DON'T ASK THE SAME FUCKING THING TWICE MOTHERFUCKER."

herhighnessvictoria · 3日前

At the end of it, don't ask, "So how did I do?"

No matter how confident or competent you seemed during the rest of the interview, that sentence kills the whole thing.

Manpancake · 2日前

Chugging a bottle of hot sauce, throwing up in the hallway, and then saying "I can handle the heat!"

EDIT:

Context (WARNING CONTAINS DANGEROUS LEVELS OF STUPID)

boomshalock · 3日前

I am mid-level manager for a small manufacturing company. Prior to this, I was a mid-level manager for an extremely large manufacturing company. Over the past 20 years, I have interviewed well over 1000 applicants for somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 open positions.

90% of these jobs were for blue-collar, entry level manufacturing positions. Do not mistake that description as hiring cheap, easily replaceable labor. The remaining 10% of the hires are for managers at or below my level. I have no advice for interviewing for executive-level, IT, HR, or any of those types of positions.

With that, since OP ask for what not to do first, I'll start there. Some of the big ones have already been posted.

Do not badmouth your previous employers, supervisors, coworkers, ex-wives/husbands, etc. It says "I'm leaving because of other reasons, not because this is the company I want to work for."
Do not ask about pay/benefits, and do not ask for time off because of already scheduled events (I need xx/xx/xxxx off because I bought tickets already") This may be acceptable depending on the rapport with the interviewer(s), but in a highly competitive environment it will put you out of the running.

EDIT A great many people are very not happy with being advised to not ask about pay and benefits, and being a great waste of time. My perspective for giving such advice:

I actually agree with your position on this. Unfortunately, the reality is that it's a big turnoff to 99% of interviewers.

It's difficult to describe, but it kind of puts the feeling out there that you're acting like you've already gotten the job, no need to talk about the other stuff. Just tell me what I'm getting paid.

If you interview well and receive an offer, you are now free to discuss and negotiate your requirements without any negative connotation.

Look at this from the company's perspective. They are the one with the most to lose out of the situation. A bad hire can literally cost millions in salary, benefits, lack of productivity, etc. The purpose of the interview, from their perspective, is to get the absolute best possible employee for the best possible cost.

The "waste of time" for you is maybe 2 hours. The "waste" for them is paying 2-5 people for those 2 hours to find someone who doesn't care about the job, only the cash, who will likely only do the bare minimum to not get hired fired.

They need to know they're getting the best person for the job. Someone who only cares about the cash very likely isn't it. That's why bringing it up prior to getting an offer generally looks bad.

Do NOT use words you don't know how to use. Do not behave any differently than you normally do. Most people are terrible liars and it's extremely obvious when someone is trying to bullshit you.
If you don't know how to answer a question, once again, don't bullshit an answer. Just say "You know, I'm not sure. I've never really come across that before." Honesty is better than anything.
Don't mumble.
Don't, for the love of god and baby jesus, say you're detail-oriented and then not be able to answer with specifics. --- Sidebar --- If your resume says you're detail-oriented and has spelling, formatting, punctuation, or any other type of error, you will not even get an interview from me.
Do not wear ridiculous amounts of cologne or perfume. No one wants to work around the crazy perfume-lady.

Here's some things that have impressed me over the years. The SHOULD DO list:

Be able to specifically relate your experience to the skills in the job posting. Have real examples.
Know about the company you're interviewing for. What do they do? What is their culture? If you know someone who works there, say you spent a lot of time talking to that person or those people and you decided to apply because of how they spoke about the place.
Be honest. Many questions that seem like repeats ARE repeats. They are there to weed out the bullshitters who can't keep their story straight.
BE WHO YOU ARE! If you're funny, be funny. If you're Mr. Serious All The Time, be that way in the interview. Phonies are easily detected. There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with making the interview and enjoyable experience for both parties. (If you can do that, you're more likely to not be a shithead in the workplace.)
Be detail-oriented. If you're not, get better at it. My favorite hire of all time was a woman in her mid-twenties who spent the first 10 minutes of the interview pointing out all of the grammatical errors in the job posting. We were hiring for an MTO shop position (Made to Order), I knew that this woman would not screw up an order. And she didn't. And she's still there, running the show.
Be early, be presentable, and be courteous. Learn how to properly shake a hand. Brush your teeth. Stand up when you introduce yourself to people. Brush your teeth. Pull your pants up. Brush your teeth. Leave your phone in the car. Brush your teeth.
Have something to take notes on during the interview.
HAVE QUESTIONS! When the employer says "Do you have any questions for us?" The single most impressive thing is to actually have questions that aren't about pay/benefits, etc. Have questions that matter. ("How long have you worked here? If you could change one thing, what would it be? What do you like best about this company?")

Money_on_the_table · 3日前

I know someone who even before the interview, they knew they wanted to hire him. His grades were awesome and he'd done an intern year there already.

The technical interview and group exercises went really well. Then they had tours of the place with the current graduates. During that time he went to casual, asking about the girls that worked there, what kind of action he'd get etc. If he'd asked about the social side of things itd be fine, but he was being a bit too crass about it.

He did not get the job.

EDIT: The most popular I have ever been on Reddit! Thanks for the gold kind german friend!

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